


Look Who's Back

by Riverchester



Series: s13 - random thoughts and Codas [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Demon Bela Talbot, Gen, Optimistic Sam, Post-Episode: s12e23 All Along the Watchtower, Pre-Season/Series 13, pessimistic Dean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-28
Updated: 2017-08-28
Packaged: 2018-12-21 03:53:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11935776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Riverchester/pseuds/Riverchester
Summary: The brothers struggle with the consequences of their fight against Lucifer and the birth of his child. They both have their own way to cope with the grief and when an unexpected visitor makes an appearance they have different opinions on how to deal with an offer made by their guest.





	Look Who's Back

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone. My second fic is a short tribute to Bela Talbot, because I loved her on the show.  
> As always, you can tell me about serious mistakes I made (I'm still not fluent in English). I hope you enjoy reading it :)

It's the first week after everything went down, after they - in a way - got rid of Lucifer but also lost a lot of good people. Mom, Rowena, Crowley. And Cas. It's the first week after a day of death the Winchester brothers probably will never forget and a day of birth leaving them to deal with an adult newborn, son of Kelly and offspring of the devil.

They're left alone, just the two of them out on the road.

The drive back to the bunker is not only silent, but depressing. Dean loaded Cas' lifeless body into the backseat of his car. Not being able to pick up the heavy corpse with his shaking hands, he had to drag the angel through the wing-imprints on the ground.

The older Winchester tightly clutches the steering wheel until his knuckles are white. They have to move close together to get Jack with them into the front seat, next to Sam, who has his trouble tucking his long limbs in the middle. He insisted on taking the young man with them, wrapped in a blanket, and stopped his older brother from shooting a load of rock salt and a bunch of bullets into the Nephilim.

The first few days back in their home are occupied with observing Jack and burying Cas, which led to Dean drinking, which led to Sam yelling. The younger hunter tries his best to communicate with Kelly's child, even when getting no response at all, to calm a raging brother, who doesn't want to calm down a bit, and to cope on his own with the loss of a friend while searching for a way to safe his mother. It's safe to say that even after almost a week, the Winchesters are nothing but exhausted.

So, when the brothers sit in the library, one drinking and the other reading, a loud knock on the heavy metal door to their underground realm is the last thing they expect to hear. At first, they don't react at all, wondering who this visitor might be, but after the second knock, years of hunting break through and they both grab their respective weapon of choice. Sam takes the steps carefully up to the little balcony overviewing the war room and slowly approaches the door, while Dean stays at the bottom of the stairs with his gun ready to shoot. From this position, the older Winchester can’t see the figure, but he can hear his brother’s gasp.

“What- You?”

“Well, look at you, Sam Winchester,” it’s a female voice. Not Jody’s or Claire’s or Alex’, that’s for sure, but it sounds kind of familiar, “I see you still fancy that hair. But I like the haircut. Suits you. Is your brother here, too?”

“You can’t- you’re a demon!” Sam stammers and Dean’s grip on his gun tightens.

“Yes, well, that’s what happens after a few hundred years in hell. But I’m not here to talk about the old times. May I come in?”

Realization hits Dean and he takes two steps at a time to rush to his brother’s side.

“Bela,” he says and joins Sam in the wide-eyed, disbelieving look at the woman in front of them.

“Nice to see you, too, Dean. The years have been kind to you. Less cute, more man. I like it” she cockily smiles at him and takes a step forward, but stops in her track when Sam raises the demon knife, “okay, I see I may have surprised you, but I’m not here to harm you and I’m alone. I just want to have a chat. I heard you two have a problem with some kid.”

“Why would you-,” Sam starts but Dean interrupts him and angrily glares at Bela.

“How did you even know where to find us?”

“Crowley brought it up one day.”

“So what, you were working with him?” Dean goes on and ignores his brother, who seemingly wants to say something, too.

“In a way,” Bela starts, “He was so kind to get me my old body back some time ago and I don’t know why, but he got a bit talkative around me, maybe because we both have some history with you guys. I’d love to go into detail, but these heels are not made for standing around that long. Wouldn’t you rather talk over a drink?”

Both brothers consider her offer and this time it’s Sam, who speaks first.

“One wrong move and I’ll kill you.”

“I wouldn’t have expected less,” she answers and makes her way past the two men, down the iron stairs and into the library, where she takes a seat. “Lovely place, definitely better than the rubbish-strewn holes you used to stay in. All those years of saving people and hunting things finally pay off, huh?”

The two hunters just stare at her. His jaw pressed together noticeably, the older brother grips the back rest of the chair he stands behind and breathes heavily. Sam sat down across from Bela but is silent as well.

“Oh, come one you two. From what I know, your world has been crumbling down quite some times in the last years. Shouldn’t you be used to it by now?”

“You’re still the same bitch you were ten years ago. Seems like it didn’t take much to get the human Bela into a demon,” Dean blurts.

“Ouch,” Bela says and puts her hand on her chest in a sweeping gesture, “And you are still the same stubborn, pugnacious and self-destructive idiot you were back then. Pretty bold for someone, who has been a demon himself,” she mocks with raised eyebrows and continues before one of the men can say something, “Are we finished with insulting each other? ‘Cause I guess there are more important things to discuss.”

Sam stops his brother from retorting and says instead, “What exactly is it that you want, Bela? You seem to know about Lucifer’s child, so what? Are you here to take Jack to hell and make him the new king after Crowley’s death?”

“Are you crazy? No, I wouldn’t want to have that spawn on the throne. I’m here to offer my help, in every way you may need it.”

“Yeah, sure. And I’m the Easter bunny,” Dean snorts and sits down.

Bela gives him a bored look, but before she can go on with her explanation, Sam interrupts.

“You want to take the throne yourself.”

“Maybe, maybe not. I’m not actually thrilled by this job, the life expectancy turned out to be quite short, but I have taken a liking to hell’s business and right now it’s going up the creek. It’s like the hipster craze has found its way into hell. They’re all just complaining the whole time. About being individuals, about deserving more outcome from their work. Since Alastair isn’t grand torturer anymore, the demons are all sissy. It’s only about who’s side you’re on and I can’t stand it,” she sighs.

Dean flinches slightly with the white-eyed demons name being mentioned, but still retorts to Bela.

“So, you came here to ask us for help getting you in a fancy crown on some fancy chair in hell and even phrases it like you want to help us with the abomination currently living in our guest room?”

Sam shoots him a look but gets no chance to say anything as Bela glares daggers at the older hunter and excessively starts talking.

“You may not have noticed it in your grieving and - by all appearances - continuant drunken condition, but Crowley’s death and Lucifer’s vanishing left hell in chaos. It’s anarchy. Both sides are going mad and do nothing but constantly kill each other. Yes, I want order back in hell, maybe by taking the lead myself, but I definitely don’t want the devil’s offspring to take over the reins. As you two right now seem to be his supervisory stuff, I offer to help either kill him, or, if you think he might be helpful, to make sure he stays out of hell’s business,” she makes a short pause and leans back in her seat, “Though, I prefer the first method.”

Dean huffs at that and Sam turns to the older man while breathing deeply.

“I said _no_ , Dean!”

As Bela just stares at the two of them quizzically, Dean clarifies, “It was my idea from the beginning to just shoot him in the face, but the ever so optimistic Sam Winchester has another opinion.”

“Some things never change, huh?” Bela laughs, “You are still this tough guy ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ and Sam is the one, who sees the good in every human being, or every being in general.”

Both Winchesters shrug.

“Oh, I had some real fun with you guys.”

“We may have different memories. I felt some real annoyance with you,” Dean responses, “So, tell me, why would we need and especially _want_ your help?”

“Do you have a solution yet? For this Jack, for your mother trapped with Lucifer, for your dead pet angel?” Bela asks and looks first at Dean, then at Sam.

“What is there to solve? Cas is gone, for good this time, I’ve seen the wings. So is mom. And you already heard my solution for Jack,” Dean practically shouts.

“What happened to the Dean Winchester I heard about in hell? You made deals and did so many stuff to safe the ones you love, again and again. I kind of always admired this iron will,” she says and rests her chin on her hand.

“She’s right, Dean. We might not have found a way yet, but we always do. You always do. I can’t just give up hope that mom is still alive on the other side of that rift, and I know that Cas is somewhere, too. You went to heaven, hell and purgatory and you always came back. We’ll find them and bring them back. I don’t know for sure, but I assume that Jack is one key to it, if not _the_ key,” Sam insistently talks to his brother before turning to Bela to continue, “I don’t know what you can do to help us, but if you mean it, thank you.”

Dean stands up, with the chair loudly scratching over the hardwood floor.

“Do whatever you want. Team up with the demon, wouldn’t be the first time. Why don’t you start a crochet group with your new bestie Jack?”

“Dean, don’t be ridiculous,” Sam tries to calm his brother. He’s used by now to the very unique way Dean copes with his feelings, which doesn’t mean that he won’t try to stay reasonable with him.

“No, Sam, I’m serious. Give Bela a room, install a sign outside the bunker ‘B&B Winchester. Home for the damned’. Organize a brunch. Just leave me the fuck alone with your shit. It’s over. Cas and mom are gone! I’m in my room, you can come get me, when you have accepted the facts. Bye, Bela, good luck reigning in hell. We’ll see how long you’ll make it.”

And with this, he storms away into the hall that leads to the bunker’s private rooms.

Sam and Bela remain silent for a good minute and look to where Dean’s figure has vanished into the dark of the corridor.

“Wow, he’s devastated. That’s not only the amounts of cheap Whiskey and beer speaking.” Bela is the first to talk.

“No, it’s not. It really hit him hard to lose mom after we just got her back. We almost lost her to the British Men of Letters and their brainwashing, but Dean was able to safe her and now she’s trapped. About Cas… we lost him many times over the years. But it’s different this time, we have never witnessed an angel coming back when their wings were imprinted on the ground. I believe that we can somehow safe him and mom even if I don’t know how yet. I have to. For Dean, for myself.”

“You two are severely insane, you know that? You are so co-dependent and still at each other’s throat,” she shakes her head.

Sam just laughs. “We’re brothers.”

“Well, I never had a brother or sister, how would I know the rules?”

The tall man sighs, “How have you been, Bela? I mean, apart from being dragged to hell and tortured. You seem pretty decent for a demon.”

“Decent?” she laughs, “yeah, if you’d like to call it that. I had a lot of contact to Crowley after I got turned into a demon. I’ve always been a business woman and I can use that perfectly in my situation now. But I also had a really brutal time. I killed a bunch of people. It was fun. It’s still entertaining how little I care about things like that. Being a demon definitely changes your perspective.”

Sam furrows his eyebrows at Bela’s cheerful explanation.

“What? Are you mad at me now? What did you expect? I’m still a demon.”

“How comes we never crossed paths with you before? I haven’t even heard about you in years,” he asks.

“I may have run wild at first, but I wasn’t out of my mind. I stayed out of your way, didn’t want to end up in the middle of a Winchester-hunt. I went overseas to play a little. Continental Europe. But the usual demon work isn’t for me. I like doing crossroad deals, ironically, but it’s getting boring the longer you do it. Crowley was, in a way, a role model. He wasn’t interested in ruin and destruction, he just wanted to be left alone with his respective amount of power and influence on underlings. This has its appeal, I must say. Crowley made some mistakes in this plan, for sure, but the theory sounds good to me,” she nods to herself.

“You make the system of hell sound acceptable,” Sam jokes.

“It is!” Bela responses, “Would you like to let everyone have their heaven? Even child rapists? Hell is necessary.”

“Yeah, it sounds nice to have such perverts tortured for a bit. But they eventually end up as demons and may cause even more damage, when they get to reach earth.”

“I have to admit you have a point. Not everyone is made to be a demon,” she laughs.

Silence falls over them and they both look around the library.

“I should probably go,” Bela says after a while, “But really, Sam, I want to help, if I can. I’m a demon, and I kind of like being a demon, but I’m not stupid. I’m helping myself with this, but that doesn’t mean I can’t help you in the process, too,” she taps the tall man on the shoulder and stands up to leave.

“I’m not going to give up my reservations against demons, but I know that we’ll need all the help we can get, Dean and me. So, you should give me your number, and I call you, when I got news.”

She quickly grabs the offered phone and adds her number to the list.

“Good luck with that grumpy child. And with Jack,” Bela says and takes the metal steps she took down not an hour ago back up to leave through the bunker’s entrance.

Sam says a short goodbye and descends to his book in the library. It has no use to go after his brother yet, but he should probably check on Jack soon. Despite Dean’s outburst, the visit from Bela left the young hunter optimistic that they will eventually rescue both Cas and their mom. Even if that means to team up with a demon. But, like Dean said, it wouldn’t be the first time.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading :)
> 
> I want to keep doing a bit of writing about Bela, and maybe I could write some Episode Tags along the upcoming season and include Bela into it (I doubt, but still hope, they will bring her back anytime soon). Would anybody be interested in this?


End file.
